On the Seventh {Through the Twelfth} Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me...

Merry Christmas y'all!  For the seventh day of Christmas I gave Jon his favorite Christmas dessert--peppermint ice cream. 

It has a chocolate-y nut mixture on the bottom with peppermint ice cream on top.  I added extra nuts and crushed up candy canes to the top.  This is a dessert that our friend Christie makes every Christmas, and the one request for Christmas from Jon.  He said it tasted like hers!  Thanks Christie for sending me the recipe!

For the eighth day I gave Jon a Chicago Bears ornament. 

He loves the Chicago Bears so I knew he'd like this football ornament to put on our Christmas tree!  I had him guess all the things he could think it would be before he opened the present!  I even had him thinking it really wasn't anything related to the Chicago Bears!  HA!

For the ninth day I gave him an evening of s'mores and hot chocolate by the fire.  We are going to do this tonight!  We decided to save it and make it a Christmas night tradition!  I'll post pictures of this later.

For the tenth day it was to make a gingerbread house together.....but....we didn't make a gingerbread house!  We made gingerbread cookies instead.  Making gingerbread cookies is a family tradition that I love.  Gingerbread cookies were my sweet Paw Paw's favorite cookie, so they always make me think of him.  I like my gingerbread cookies thin--just like my Paw Paw! 

Every Christmas we have made these cookies.  While my Momma, Amanda, and I make gingerbread men, snowman, Santa, etc; my Daddio always makes "Monster Gingerbread Men".  That means he gives the gingerbread man three heads, an extra foot....you know...funny crazy gingerbread men!  So....Jon and Mason {my sister's husband} joined Daddio in making monster gingerbread men!  HA!

Monster Gingerbread--Cat Santa Clause!  HA!

We are going to make a list of the Top Ten memories we have together for 2013 for the eleventh day. 

We haven't done this yet because we have been busy with Christmas activities...so I'll put that up later.

The twelfth day of Christmas was Jon's last day of Christmas Love. 

It was for a special Christmas Eve breakfast.  I made pancakes and fried bacon.  I made the pankcakes look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

I think that will become one of our special Christmas Eve traditions!  We started several traditions together this year, and incorporated important traditions we have with our families...more on that later! 

Merry Christmas from the Werkmeisters!  We hope that all y'all have had a wonderful Christmas season!

Our first Christmas card!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I'm off to make s'more and hot chocolate with Jon! Merry Christmas y'all!

~Ashlee~

On the Fourth {Fifth and Sixth} Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me...

The Twelve Days of Christmas Love for Jon is still going on.  Jon is having fun seeing what he gets everyday!  For the fourth day of Christmas love I gave him a date to go and look at Christmas lights. 

I don't think I'll ever get tired of going to look at Christmas lights!  It's so pretty and magical to see how people are so creative decorating their homes outside.  When Amanda {my sister} and I were growing up in Mobile, AL we always looked forward to going to Chickasaw, AL to look at Christmas lights with our parents.  The houses were all lit up and decorated to the fullest--every house had lights, and you could see the neighborhood lit up from a mile away!  Picture the neighborhood on "Christmas With the Kranks" and that is what the neighborhood in Chickasaw looked like!  It's sad to me that not as many people decorate outside anymore.  We haven't had time yet to go and look at Christmas lights, but we decided we would do that this weekend...so I'll post some pictures of that date later.
For the fifth day of Christmas love I gave Jon his favorite dinner.

He was kind of confused and said "didn't we just have that?" He was referring to the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza I had made him for day three!  Ha!  For his dinner he picked Tiger Sauce chicken, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. 

While I don't really cook, I had made Tiger Sauce chicken for Jon one night when he came over while we were still in Hattiesburg.  If you like spicy food then you would like Tiger Sauce chicken!  It's also good on pork chops.  This is a recipe I think my Aunt Betty came up with! 

For the sixth day of Christmas love I gave Jon a date to watch his favorite Christmas movie. 

When I was making the dates, I knew he would pick Home Alone...and he did!  I actually gave him ALL 4 Home Alone movies for one of his birthday presents.  I did not know they made four Home Alone movies {3 and 4 have another kid instead of Kevin}.  We have not watched Home Alone yet, but I think I'll pop some popcorn and maybe make some hot chocolate for our movie date!  Of course, Louella Mae will get to come and watch too!  I'll post some pictures of that date later. 

Tiger Background
Font:  Georgia Belle

On the Third Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me...

Jon is a foodie...he loves all kinds of food....he's not a picky eater like me...he eats almost anything!  His favorite food is pizza....a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza that is. I remember going home to Rockford with Jon over the summer to meet his friends and family.  I couldn't wait to see the sights in Chicago and experience all of the places that Jon had always talked about.  I was excited to try a Chicago deep dish pizza while we were in Chicago!  Gino's East was where Jon, his best friend Conn, and I went for my first experience of a Chicago deep dish pizza.  I didn't know what to expect, and then when I saw the sauce was on top of the pizza instead of the cheese I thought that was different.  Of course, that's what makes it a traditional Chicago style pizza I guess!

Ready for a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza from Gino's East in The Windy City!

For Jon's third day of Christmas Love, I gave him a homemade Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.

I looked online and found a recipe for a homemade Chicago deep dish pizza.  Many people had commented on the recipe of how it tasted like the real deal, almost as good as Gino's....so I thought I'd try it out.  This was a homemade Chicago deep dish pizza...homemade dough and homemade sauce...everything was made from scratch.  I'm *so not* a cook, but I promised it to him, so I had to deliver on my promise!   It took about 3 hours to make, and when it was finished cooking it looked like a Chicago deep dish pizza...but how it tasted was key for my hubby. 

Homemade Deep Dish Chicago Pizza

Jon said that it tasted just like the real Chicago Deep Dish pizzas from some of his favorite pizza places....mission accomplished! I added sausage and pepperoni to the top {I only like cheese, so I wanted to see which side was only cheese}.  Ok, ok....I also added a little more Parmesan cheese to the top than called for...I'm a cheese girl!

You can click *here* for the recipe to make your own Chicago Deep Dish pizza.  Let me know if you do and let me know how your Chicago deep dish pizza turned out!
You can click *here* to start from the beginning of The Twelve Days of Christmas Love for My Hubby.

~Ashlee~

On The First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me...

On Thursday night Jon came home from working out to a find a surprise!  I was inspired by The Spouse Christmas Count Down by The Dating Divas; and I created Jon "Twelve Days of Christmas Love for My Hubby."

Cover Page of his banner "Twelve Days of Christmas Love"

I wanted each day to be personal and all about him...something that he likes to do, something special he wants to eat, fun Christmas activities to go and do.  I had already created the cards on my computer and printed them out, so as soon as he left I got busy on my surprise!  I knew I didn't have long.  I had twine and clothespins left over from our wedding so I used those to clip my cards.  I placed the cards face down, so each day is a surprise! 

This is what it looked like when he came home.

I explained to Jon that each day we will do whatever is on the card and that it would be things we could do together.  He was very excited, and couldn't wait to find out what was on the card the next morning! 

Friday started the countdown, and it was to go and get Christmas coffee from Starbucks.  I got a Gingerbread Latte and Jon got an Eggnog Latte on ice. 

This morning was day 2, and it was a dessert of his choice.  He picked Christmas sugar cookies.

 I think tomorrow will be one of his favorite days...Come back to see what the rest of the countdown surprises are!

 

*Graphics:  My Cute Graphics, Smitten Christmas
*Fonts:  Christmas Eve, Bodie MF Holly, Pea Cari